


Just Behind Jupiter

by Manuscriptor



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Biblical References, Kinda, Nonbinary Character, Other, Trueform Angels, Trueform Demons, pining?, they don't adhere to any gender tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-19 08:23:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19353166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Manuscriptor/pseuds/Manuscriptor
Summary: Crowley and Aziraphale stretch their wings in their fullest, truest form. Crowley remembers why he loves this beautiful creature from Heaven.





	Just Behind Jupiter

“The Earth isn’t going to burst into flames the moment you leave it, angel.”

“Yes, _I know_ , but it’s always a possibility.”

“We are _both_ leaving. No one’s gonna be around to even start a fire, I swear.”

Aziraphale chewed his lip, looking around his bookshop and then out the window. His forehead wrinkled in worry, and Crowley knew that the angel was for sure imagining the houses around them in flames at that very moment. It didn’t used to be this hard to tempt Aziraphale off the planet. Crowley must be getting rusty.

“Come on,” he coaxed. “How long has it been since you stretched your wings?”

“Just yesterday actually,” Aziraphale said, busying himself with a pile of papers that sat on top of the front counter. “I flew to Italy for gelato.”

Crowley rolled his eyes even if he knew the gesture couldn’t be seen through his sunglasses. “Not that,” he said. “ _Really_ stretched your wings. Your _real_ wings.”

Aziraphale froze, papers in his hands and eyes on the ground. Crowley smirked because he had him now. Just a couple more whispered promises, and the angel would be flying off to Venus with him. He sidled up to the counter and braced his hands, leaning over so that he could leer over Aziraphale. The poor angel was still frozen, lost in thought at the image Crowley had conjured.

“How long?” the demon asked, his voice hushed but more of a growl than anything. “Come on, Aziraphale, how long has it been? You’ve got to be itching under the feathers to really, _truly_ stretch, huh? Think of it. You and me, off of earth for an hour. The humans can't blow themselves to shit in that amount of time."

Aziraphale was really considering it now. Crowley could see the angel bargaining with himself in the scrunch of his forehead and the fidgeting with his hands. Any moment now he would say yes to Crowley's plans and they could leave this boring bookshop behind. And really, once they were off of Earth, Crowley would have a much easier time. He promised the angel only an hour, but he could worm and tug and tempt Aziraphale into more than that.

"Fine," Aziraphale said, just according to plan. He gave Crowley a stern look. "Only because it has been ages and only because things on Earth have been quiet. You promise only an hour?"

Crowley smirked and shrugged. "Promise."

Aziraphale gave him an exhausted look, like he knew exactly what Crowley would do once they were out. But plans had been made and he couldn't back out now. The angel's damning trait would be that he never backed out of plans and it would probably be the death of him.

"I'll meet you behind Jupiter," Crowley called as Aziraphale walked to the room behind the counter, muttering and grumbling to himself.

"Fine, fine," Aziraphale said over his shoulder. "As long as we don’t show up on any telescope or satellite humans have happened to put up there. I haven't done this in such a long time. It'll probably take me a moment."

Crowley just smirked. "I'll meet you there."

He flared his wings and took flight, disappearing in the blink of a human eye. He aimed for Jupiter and let his human form break and dissolve around himself. With a creak and groan of bones and muscles and a sigh of relief, Crowley was able to take his true demon form.

It wasn’t much if Crowley were being modest.

But he wasn’t often modest.

His true form struck fear into the deepest heart of any human who saw him. He could swallow heads whole and carve out the guts of any creature of any size. In his demon form, he sat proudly at the top of the food chain and ate anything that dared challenge him for the position. He was mighty and Fallen and triumphant.

It was one of his favorite forms to take.

His skull cracked and crushed itself down, becoming more reptilian than human. His eyes squeezed themselves out of their sockets and his organs all rearranged themselves inside his body. New ones spontaneously grew and the ones that he didn’t need were instantly absorbed. His wings extended out and out and out, and in the end, calling himself a male or even using masculine pronouns didn’t even make sense anymore.

Crowley did it mostly for simplicity.  

He settled into his final form, a mass of chaos and destruction, by the time he was half-way to Jupiter. And he took the time to revel in his size and power.

He was as large as a star.

No.

_Larger_.

His black wings stretched across the expanse of space, eclipsing any light like black holes. His feet, now hooves capable of crushing metal and bone, were each the size of Earth’s moon. He was magnificent and glorious, rivaling the stars and planets around him.

And he had three heads and a dozen eyes to take in his surroundings.

His primary head, the one in the center that he most often used to consume souls, was a huge black python. This was where he got his yellow eyes and all his charm. The head had a mouth of fangs that oozed acidic poison and a forked tongue that had a dexterity that Crowley liked to think added to his personal charm.

The second head, hanging to the right of the snake, was a goat. Its yellow, negative-mark eyes dripped something more akin to puss than tears and flies buzzed in and out of its mouth. It sagged at a dangerous angle, dead weight or apathy it didn't matter which. Both could be a sin. It was death and disease and gave Crowley the power to unleash such into whatever he chose. Its horns were also covered in blood and gore, evidence of past battles and even more victories.

The third and last head was a woman of such beauty and charm that Crowley often credited her with his own good looks. She had wild, fiery red hair and eyes as black as black could be. Her lips were wine red, stained in blood, and from her tongue poured words and promises of nights and fantasies and such wild ideas that even Crowley had half a mind to quiet her. She was the tempter.

Crowley wanted to howl at the stars around him and crow in his victory and power, but he also didn’t want to disappoint Aziraphale by giving up their position to the humans. Their small minds wouldn’t even be able to begin to wrap around what he was, and he certainly didn’t want to make all of their heads pop. It was best, right now, to stay quiet and not draw the attention that he deserved so much of.

He reached the backside of Venus, expecting to be the first one to arrive.

But he was wrong.

Aziraphale was already stretched himself out to his full length, barely even sheltered in Venus’s shadow. If he wanted, he could cradle the planet in all six of his hands, claws curled around the ball of gas and rock like it was a plaything and not part of an entire universe. If he spread his wings to their full extent, he would block off the last half of the solar system, blinding whatever satellites were pointed in their direction and becoming an anomaly that would be discussed for years among scholars. He was already dozens of times larger than Crowley, big enough to cradle him in his hands like a baby bird.

And he was growing still.

Like Crowley, no human sex or gender or pronouns could describe what the angel _truly_ was. Using he and him was more for ease than anything else. Aziraphale would never dream of inconveniencing humans by using a title that didn't make sense, though his true form was far beyond any human concept or science or understanding.

Like Crowley, his human head was gone, replaced by four others. They were less distinct heads though, and more like four faces fused to one skull.

In the front, the primary position, was a lion. Its icy blue eyes dropped and watered with unshed tears and while its mouth was full of gleaming white fangs, it was hard to believe it would use them to harm. Its two paws were curled up tight to its chest, only used in times of war or Armageddon.

To the left of the lion was a wild ox. Even now, its snarling mouth was spilling out a whole new star system, ever creating and ever expanding the world. Its pitch eyes gleamed with an unspoken anger though, and its long curled horns were just as ready to gore and gut as they were to support and defend.

To the right, was a human face, eyes closed in contemplation and mouth curved down in a solemn frown. Indistinguishable as either male or female, their own hands hung limp and empty. Crowley swallowed sharply because those were the hands that held the flaming sword of Eden for so long before giving it away.

The last face, the one turned away from Crowley, was an eagle, feathers gleaming silver and eyes almost as yellow as his snake's. They were half lidded now, idle and disinterested. If they happened to catch the sight of Crowley, he would be dead on the spot.

Aziraphale's lower half was mostly humanoid, legs loosely curled into a fetal position. His stomach and thighs both large and fat, the seams of eyes just barely visible, and though Crowley knew he would be disintegrated on the spot if they happened to open, he wanted to cuddle himself into Aziraphale's midsection nonetheless. If Aziraphale wanted, he could smite Crowley's entire existence from this realm and all of history.

The lion turned its head in his direction, and Crowley was smiling despite the danger to his entire being. He shivered.

"You are smaller than I thought."

The words were less spoken and more projected out into the universe. They would register on bizarre frequencies down on Earth as jumbled radio noise and songs that sounded _almost_ _familiar_ but not familiar enough to be named. They didn't leave any one of Aziraphale's mouths, though Crowley heard him loud and clear.

_And you are much larger._

Crowley didn't really speak either, more projected his thoughts and intention in the general direction of Aziraphale. Sort of like a prayer but not, because he was a demon and not an angel.

The lion's eyes blinked slowly, and Crowley was certain that it was going to start crying any second. He almost regretted his words, until Aziraphale laughed in that same way he spoke. Not physically but definitely with humor.

"I could swallow you in one mouthful."

Crowley shivered with delight.

He moved closer, just barely able to fit himself behind the planet. Aziraphale shifted to give him room, his wings almost knocking into Saturn's rings behind them. All six of them didn't fit so cleanly on his back, but he somehow made it work.

_And then who would take you to lunch?_

"I don't need lunch. Not in this form."

Aziraphale shifted, the ox huffing out a particular glut of stars and the lion licking its chops. His human hands twitched for something to do or hold, obviously missing their sword, and then fell still. Several eyes opened on his wings to fixate briefly on Crowley before quickly losing interest and rolling back, falling closed again.

_But then who would run your bookshop back on Earth and tell me what a damned creature I am. I am._

“I can do that perfectly well from here.”

Aziraphale plunged one human hand down through Jupiter’s atmosphere and rested it on the unseen hunk of rock below, listing wildly in that direction as he attempted a casual lean. If he wasn’t careful, he would push the planet entirely out of orbit. As he was, he could peek his oxen head around the planet just enough to see Earth. The lion blinked back tears.

_Yes, and what would the humans think of their misplaced planet?_

Crowley gestured to Jupiter which was starting to groan on its axis.

Aziraphale immediately pulled away. The human hands immediately tucked themselves up and out of the way, as if ashamed of their actions. An actual full tear dripped down the lion’s golden fur. It settled on the tip of its nose and didn’t fall, which was probably for the better because an ocean just floating around in space wouldn’t be good and would probably be noticed by the humans before long. The lion’s startling pink tongue fell from its mouth and then swiped up to collect the drop.

Crowley flicked his own forked tongue in appreciation.

_I kinda like you this size._

If it were at all possible, the human’s mouth quirked up in an almost-smile, confident and assured. That was the Aziraphale that made Crowley’s knees weak and, at the moment, his three different hearts flutter.

_How about we stay up here for a while? Just you and me._

The woman on his shoulder whispered a bit louder, promising every sort of adventure and every type of food and drink and sweet. She promised any time period, any restaurant, any price. She promised that Crowley would keep his mouth shut and his wallet open and afterwards, they would read books in Aziraphale’s shop, side by side until the sun came up.  They were the promises that would normally would have crumbled Aziraphale’s resolve. They were the promises that Crowley normally made and that Aziraphale normally took without questioning.

“You said an hour.”  

Crowley cringed in on himself, like a snake that had been stepped on. He tried a sly smile and wink of his yellow, golden eyes. His tempter whispered a bit louder, promising a night among the stars and outside of the Milky Way, away from the scope of the human satellites. They could be all on their own, wings stretched across the vast oblivion of space and free in between the cramped space of the different galaxies.

“An hour.”

Aziraphale was even more firm now, the lion even curling its lips back in a sad sort of smile.

_An hour._

The tempter made the promise this time. Quiet and resigned. But Crowley smiled his scaled lips and flicked his forked tongue up at the angel that could strike him dead in the blink of a literal eye. He winked as Aziraphale turned his lion head aside and the human’s face turned just a touch of a shade more pink. The next galaxy the ox created snaked around Jupiter, as red as Crowley’s hair when he held his human form and it swirled the same way too.

Crowley stuck one wing out, tangling it in the seconds-old stars and space dust, marveling at the way it swirled through his feathers. Never burning and never hurting. Just existing.

_We’ll have to destroy those later. Or we’ll alert the humans. They tend to notice things like entire star systems suddenly appearing._

Aziraphale shrugged his wings, several eyes opening up to see what was going on and then closing again when it was nothing.

“You can, demon, one of destructions.”

Crowley shivered in delight at the title, one given so lovingly by such a polar opposite being. His snake coiled in pleasure and he blinked his moon eyes up at the huge cosmic creature that had stolen more than just his heart. He flicked his tongue.

_For you, of course._

 

**Author's Note:**

> so apparently Aziraphale is a Principality in the books but the angel that guards Eden is a Cherub. He takes the form of the latter
> 
> but for real? read the wiki of judeo-christian Principalities, they're cute as fuck, and Aziraphale is definitely one imo
> 
> hey look, I'm on tumblr @manuscript-or


End file.
